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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Doesn't that just sum up Obama's entire philosophy? Perks for friends and donors, and slaps in the face for the rest of us. Thanks to Rush Limbaugh for pointing out the site where I found this information, Free Beacon. Their article yesterday, Trashing Tricare, infuriated me even though I should have seen it coming, being sufficiently familiar with how Obama rolls.

"Administration officials told Congress that one goal of the increased fees is to force military retirees to reduce their involvement in Tricare and eventually opt out of the program in favor of alternatives established by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare."

Doesn't that just make you sick? It should. It's time I reiterated the problems inherent in Obamacare. It's not just that it will add trillions annually to our ballooning deficit once the ten year 'budget' window is up. It's not just that it doesn't meet the goal of reducing health care costs, despite all the lies thrown at us from Obama via Pelosi and Reid. It is a poorly crafted piece of legislation, utterly at odds with common market sense! Have you read it or talked to someone who has, your doctor perhaps? Yes, our health care system needs some serious reforms, but Obamacare doesn't address those areas, such as reliance on expensive technology to practice defensive medicine against rising medical malpractice lawsuits: it creates new regulations adding even more costs!. It must be repealed if the Supreme Court doesn't strike it down.

Now let's enumerate all the ways in which Obamacare fails us. Even before the full implementation of Obamacare, doctors are retiring and fleeing in droves. Bad for patients. Some smaller hospitals are closing. Bad for patients. Employers can't afford the more expensive insurance required under Obamacare and aren't expanding if not shrinking, bad for jobs and patients. Insurance companies are raising premiums because of Obamacare's expensive requirements: bad for patients. Bad for jobs if those companies fold. Even the public option isn't attractive: I've been on public and private and there is NO comparison in quality of care. Bad for patients. And of course, the costs will be astronomically higher than projected like every other government program, which taxpayers get to cover. Bad for everyone!

You got that? Obamacare doesn't help doctors. It doesn't help insurance companies and will likely drive most of them, if not all, out of business. It affects employment which is struggling enough already. It creates a new bureaucracy with more overhead costs and increased wait times on medical decisions that used to be, and should still be, in YOUR hands.

The current law also says that come Mar 1, 2012, Medicare (perhaps Congress punted this towards later in the year, as they already have once or twice) will no longer reimburse individuals involved in care, but give out a certain amount based solely upon diagnosis. This amount of money would not change based upon severity of the disease, length of stay, extra testing, etc. That means all doctors (and the hospital) will have to divide up the money in some way hopefully reflective of care given, and the result is projected to halve doctors' pay to a little over $100k. This might not be a big deal were medical education so long and expensive and malpractice coverage so high. But Obamacare lacks any tort reform, so medical costs will continue to be high so that doctors can assure lawyers in court that they did everything possible to care for their patients, including unnecessary expensive tests and labs. Not that I blame them for not wanting to get their butts sued off. I blame Obamacare for leaving out changes to the biggest cost driver in medicine, but what do you expect from a bunch of lawyers?

In essence, Obamacare will ruin us all and forcing the military to rely on it is hitting below the belt.

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